the age of twenty-five, H.C. Trenholm became the institution’s youngest president. H.C. Trenholm elevated the Junior College status of the school to a four-year institution of higher learning in 1928. Due to the new educational status of the school, the name was changed to Alabama State Teachers College in 1929. In 1931, the first graduation for the four-year college curriculum was held. H.C. Trenholm helped the college to advance even further in 1940 by instituting the college’s first graduate program. The first graduate program was in 1943. The college once again was renamed under H.C. Trenholm’s tenure as president to Alabama State College for Negroes in 1948. H.C. Trenholm relinquished the position of president in 1962.Levi Watkins was appointed as the sixth president of Alabama State College for Negroes in 1962. That same year, under Watkins’ supervision, the college began to offer athletic scholarships. Watkins served as president during a socially turbulent time in the south. The civil rights movement was in full swing in Watkins’ first year as president. The students at Alabama State College for Negroes were vital members in the civil rights movement. Watkins continued to push the college forward while participating in the movement himself. Watkins was an instrumental factor in the accreditation of the college in 1966 by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. In 1969, he approved the proposal to change the name of the college from Alabama State College for Negroes to Alabama State University. A few years later, in 1975, the administrative control of the university changed from the State Board of Education to the Alabama State Board of Trustees. Watkins’ last great contribution to the university while serving as president was the development and commencement of University College in 1975. Robert L. Randolph, Leon Howard, Clifford C. Baker, and William H. Harris, respectively were th...
